October 12, 2010

Stretto - Ivan Karakezidi (Russia)

Ivan Karakezidi in his cask cellar

Stretto wineryYuzhnaya Ozereevka & Anapa (Novorossiisk region, southern Russia)
Ivan Karakezidi is probably the most emblematic artisan winemaker of Russia, a country which has almost no family winery as we understand the notion in the other wine-producing countries. What Ivan has been through (and still is today to some extent) to get allowed to make wine is quite heroic. He has been the first rebel to pretend make wine independently, and this, without thev usual additives or industrial processes, except some SO2, making thus another rebellion against the culture of highly-corrected wines widespead among the industrial wineries here.The Russian administration never really understood why an individual without heavy industrial backing could pretend to start a winery in the first place. In the mindset of the people in charge of delivering the authorizations, wine production is a big-industry thing and in spite of his 5 generations of ancestry in family winemaking, they didn’t take him seriously and thought he would give up in front of their avalanche of requirements. He didn't. And actually, Ivan Karakezidi and his likes represent the best hopes for Russia wines to attract the attention of demanding wine amateurs not only in Russia but abroad.

Ivan Karakezidi & son Konstantin in front of the family home/winery

Ivan is of Greek ancestry (you can call him Janis too, it’s the Greek equivalent of Ivan) and there’s something of the Greek mythology in this man : his lyricism about what should be the wine, about the life in general, his musical bouts where he gives himself fully like a dedicated professional musician on stage, isn’t that Dyonisos in person, reincarnated in southern Russia to bring back this country to its vinous common sense ? I shot this picture on his family house, where he set up his initial small winery. His son Konstantin (who by the way is speaking French fluently) helps him when he is not working and learning in wineries abroad (in France, particularly).The home/winery in the background is where it started. Ivan Karakezidi emphasizes the importance of working with healthy grapes with controlled yields, and the vineyard part is for him central to make a good wine. On the vinification side, he makes carbonic macerations (карбоническая мацерация or carbonitcheskaya matseratsiya) in open-top wooden vats during some 20 days for his reds, with a careful surveillance of the temperature round the clock. The long élevage which follows gives his wines the capacity to live and breath by themtselves. He bottles his wines manually under cold temperature, and can't understand the use of pasteurization which is common in the industrial wineries : it kills everything in the wine, he says, including the life of the wine and its subtle aromas, that's why he also prefers not to filter his wines.

Toasting with his wine

Russia is a country full of contradictions, and that’s also true for its wine sector : I am puzzled by the fact that despite a total control of the sector by
the big industry
derived from soviet-era Kombinats, several individual winemakers are emerging with a fierce will to make real wines, using no additives and in some instances, vinifying without any SO2. To see a natural-wine movement emerge without any relation or reference to the French one makes me think about things & events that happen around the world without known connections. Here, Ivan just wants to keep making wine like he saw his parents and grand parents do in their backyard. He says in an interview in the Russian media that even while holding the title of Police chief, his grand father kept making wine at home for family use. Even today, you can see in the villages of the region heaps of must dumped in gardens here and there, hinting at some home winemaking going on. Now that the socialist system has disappeared, all Ivan Karakezidi wants is make artisanal wine and share it with wine lovers.I had read a few articles on the Russian Internet about Ivan Karakezidi, and his fight against the administration to keep making wine, so I utterly wanted to visit him near Novorossiysk. Eduard Dolgin of Kubanskie Vina in Krasnodar helped me and my friends to realize that wish. We visited his estate and the whole thing was quite a treat. A visit at Ivan Karakezidi's Stretto family winery is nothing ordinary, it's both fastuous and fun, part show, complete with music and jokes, it's a great vinous experience with the nice wines that our host pours us along with fresh and refined food, and you get a unique glimpse on the first natural-wine maker of Russia.

Konstantin Karakezidi in front of open-top fermentation vats

During his youth under the soviet regime, Ivan Karakezidi kept making wine with his parents and family. Unlike the ordinary Soviet citizens of other regions, he knew by experience that this wine made at home had only the name in common with what the wine industry (the soviet wine industry at the time) had to offer. The sovkhoz wineries/plants of the communist era, and to some extent, today’s industrial wineries in Russia often used imported cheap bulk wine from countries like Spain or Argentina, or they used conzentrat, and all sort of things to make these «wines». His wine was real, and when you drink it, I understand he couldn't drink anything else. Today, ironicly, the hidden survival of traditional winemaking through the grey years of the Soviet Union may be the way to salvation & rebirth for Russian wines. Ivan embodies perfectly this survival, but like Ivan said in an interview, the apparent goal of the administration bodies is to do everything they can to prevent entrepreneurs to go ahead (reminds me something). In the case of artisan winemaking, that’s shooting-in-the-foot for Russia, as it is harming Russia’s prospects in the quality-wine sector.The picture above was shot at the family property, where it all began. These open-top fermenters are Russian made, with Caucasian oak. These type of traditional fermenters which are so widespread in artisan wineries in France, are very rare in Russia.

Ther Vineyards near Anapa

Ivan Karakezidi, helped by his son Konstantin, has recently planted vines on purchased land, and he otherwise buys grapes from
selected terroirs
on the dry and windy hills in the vicinity of Novorossiysk and Anapa. His recently-planted vineyard makes about 7 hectares and he chose varieties like Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot for a Bordeaux blend. The pictures here were shot on these young vineyards planted on purchased land near Anapa. We passed them while driving from his family house (and winery) in the village of Yuzhnaya Ozereevka to his other, new winery facility in the vicinity of Anapa. There, closest as possible from his own vineyards, he built a facility which is both a state-of-the-art traditional winery, and an accommdation for wealthy clients or for his friends. His vinification being non interventionist and basic, he capitalizes on the best quality of grapes to make his wines, and although his overall production is very low in Russian standards (15 000 to 25 000 bottles a year), he invested on a carefully-planned facility including sorting table and Russian-made tronconic open-top fermenters.The vineyard, which is plowed with a tractor, is planted with 2 meeters between rows and 80 cm between vines, making 5000 vines/hectare. It's Cabernet Sauvignon here on the pictures. They have also Cabernet Franc, Merlot and Petit Verdot in here. Grafts were imported from France (Guillaume, in the Franche Comté region). They tends to harvest later than other people.

Konstantin Karakezidi near a vineyard crusher

But let’s go back to the administration hassles : as you know now, in Russia, you must get separate licenses (& buildings) for making wine, bottle it, and sell it. for each of these licenses, state administration technicians ask all sort of things, often adding new demands when the first ones are completed. Ivan said in an interview on the Russian media that he was asked things like rebuilding the access road, sanitary equipment of the sort that heavy chemical industry would need, even a separate telephone line in a small separate shack so that the control technicians can send back "securely" their data to the administration when they drop for a visit (we saw this topic in a previous story). In short, like any other aspiring winemaker eager to make wine commercially, he’s been flooded by endless requirements by several administrations whose clear goal was to discourage him and keep himm off the trade. As an illustrating anectode, once, one of these people came on a control visit. The guy obviously had never seen any other wineries than the Russian kombinats and when he saw the wooden fermenters, he asked with a weird look on his face : «do you mean that you want to make the wine in these things ??? where are your sterile fermenting vats ?».Against all odds, Ivan Karakezidi persisted and he got his license around 2001, and could sell his wines. Today, it’s not clear if he still can sell his wine, as I heard that after 5 or 6 years the administration head changed and he was left in the dark again, without valid license.

The tronconic vats (new facility)

The winery part of Ivan Karakezidi's new facility (picture on left) in the vicinity of Anapa is
very smartly designed, with natual ventilation and gravity so that the grapes and the juice get the best treatment.
You have everything here any non-interventionist winemaker in the world would dream of : a line of open-top tronconic wooden vats (5 of them, 70-hectoliter-capacity each, and Russian made : Caucasian oak) to vinify several cuvées in parallel, a conveyor belt, a vertical press with multiple baskets, there's everything here. Including of course a cask cellar below into which the wine can flow from the fermenters without using any pump, just the natural gravity to take the best care of the wine. Simple, aesthetic and lots of hygiene too, the guy who designed this knows what he is doing. And the guy who planned this all is no specialized architect, but Ivan Karakezidi in person. Amazing. I can't believe he can't get the permission to sell his wine in his own country...This winery went through its first vinification last year (in 2009), with a very small volume of wine though. I asked which cooperage made the wooden containers, Konstantin told me it was Meladini in the village of Sauk Dere.

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The festive house

That's an extravaganza that makes this estate unique : this building, which looks like a giant tree house, is for grownups who don't take themselves seriously : it has been designed by Ivan and it is intended to receive friends and organize parties, there can be cocktails upstairs, musicians and so on, and if you feel you're too tired to walk down the stairs (if you see what I mean), there's a toboggan which brings you swiftly and smoothlyy to the grass on the right of the house. The big open top fermenter in front of the house has been designed for a yearly party where Ivan and his friends make the "friends' cuvée" : the grapes are feet stomped by the participants just in front of the house, so that people take part physically and with fun in the making of a wine. See this video, also this video shot during such festive days with a live musician and orchestra performing, this took place a couple of weeks after I visited.

The élevage cellar

Back to the winery part : The malolactic fermentation is made below in the first cask room. Then, further down, in a second basement, there's the élevage cellar, an impressive, vaulted room with not much wine yet as the new winery has only begun to function last year. This next vintage will begin to fill the room soon. No women, here ! says Ivan, thus following a tradition which keeps women away from wines in the making, because wines at this stage are very fragile and women having their periods can influence the wine in the wrong way. We'll not debate if this ancient belief is mere prejudice or empirical knowledge, but this is what has always been practiced in Ivan's ancestors and he continues it, with a smile, though.

A suite at Stretto

Ivan Karakezidi also receives wealthy clients in his estate, both at the first location next to his family house near the sea and here in his new facility.
People can reserve
a suite like this one for a few days or a week, and they will be treated with great food and of course great wines, enjoying walks or horse rides in the forest behind the facility, or another luxury which he must be the only vigneron to offer in Russia, and maybe in the world : therapy through fermenting juice and grapes. Let me explain : under the supervision of a doctor and therapist, wealthy women can come here for a few days and enjoy a dietary treat alternating with very rare baths : thalasso-therapy in fermenting wine. Yes, there's no typo here : The fermenting juice with the grape skins is known to carry an incredible energy and rejuvenating power which can be somehow transmitted to humans through a bath at the appropriate stage of the early fermentation. The picture on the left, shot at the first location, shows a bath-shaped wooden vat for such a fermenting-juice therapy. The ones at the newer facility are larger and can accomodate 2 people. On the right, Ivan Karakezidi tastes and checks the fermentation stage of grapes and juice to be used soon for such a scheduled therapy & thermal session. These alternative uses of the winery and of the fermenting juice help Ivan Karakezidi circumvent the problem of not having the right to sell his wine : these sessions come with a high fee, and they help pay the bills, plus, he serves great food to his guests, and there's nothing illegal in Russia to pour one's own wine to your guests inside your property.

The wines

__ Stretto Chardonnay 2003, new casks 30 %. Long fermentation with 15 ° C at the beginning, then 18 ° C. Very aaromatic, with iode notes. Lots of freshness with a mineral feel in the mouth. Notes of English candy or honey. Spent lots of time in casks, he says. The part in old casks spent 4 months there, then it was blended and had its élevage in vats. Rich wine which glides beautifully on the palate. Malolactic fermentation completed. He always lets the malolactic fermentation proceed.__ Stretto Merlot/Cabernet Sauvignon 2003. Reduction on the first nose. Unfiltered wine, he says. After some time, aromas of very riê fruits come to you, also garrigue or scrubland, and laurel. Extraction, velvety feel in the mouth. Really nice wine. Before, he says, he kept the stems but now it's case by case; in general, he makes 30 % of whole clusters. Silky, great with the food, and the reduction is gone. The average price of his wines (if he could sell them of course) is 1700 Roubles or 35 to 40 €. Ivan says about the SO2 level that he has a maximum of 4,8 gr total. In free SO2, it makes 40 or less. He puts some when the harvest comes in, and only if there is some rot among the grapes. Otherwise, he uses a sulphur wick to clean the casks.

The show...

Ivan is a complete artist and performer, in addition to a gifted intuitive winemaker. Here is a picture where he shows us his musical talent. He played piano and sang several jazz-inspired melodies, and also a Greek song which had some Bossa Nova style. Ivan owes maybe this entertainment skill and musician talent to the fact that in a former life long time ago, he was the director of the local Dom Kulturi (дом културы), the cultural center which you found in all cities and villages in the time of the Soviet Union.This musical interlude where Konstantin also held a good place took place in a reception room for his guests, in the new facility near Anapa, as were were sipping his delicious estate-made brandy (very good stuff indeed, I had three pours of it and wouldn't have balked at a fourth...).

That was on a beach near there, on a saturday or a sunday if I remember. The bride was holding a bottle of Russian sparkling and the couple was enjoying the view and the breeze like everyone else on the beach. I can testify that the water temperature was very nice for what you'd expect of the 3rd week of september in Russia...